Monday, June 15, 2015

E3 Day One Super Notes

XBOX FEATURES

Xbox One "Game Preview" - Early Access for Xbox... I'm sorry console fans. I never wished this evil upon you. You're going to be SO mad playing Early Access games... I'm calling it right now. Just wait. Winter's coming.

Xbox One Backwards Compatibility - This is good. I know a lot of console gamers want to go back to old games. (I personally think going back to old games is a waste of time for me now since I've played so much, but I can realize the value here)

NEW GAMES

Halo 5 - Halo/shooter game. More rehashed gameplay that will sell by the boatload. Console shooter fans will gobble it up, I won't bother. It'll be successful.

Fallout 4 - FPS-RPG. Again. Will have mods. Mods are going to be a good addition. This game will be good, I'm not too worried. You get Fallout 3 free with Fallout 4... does this matter now? Why haven't you played Fallout 3 yet?

Plants vs. Zombies: GW2 - Third-Person Action. This game needs some serious additions to it's content. It's a fun concept/core gameplay, but it gets stale fast. They'll need better matchmaking and more things to do. Also need to have better base customization options.

Dark Souls 3 - Hardcore Third-Person Action-RPG. Another game of rehashed content. Not super excited, but I'm sure I'll play it and have a decent time. It's not going to be a groundbreaker.

Ashen - Adventure. Looks pretty. Not a game that's piqued my interest, but it might be ok.

Cuphead - 2D Sidescroll Action. This actually looks new and fun. Old school Disney art with modern action/platformer gameplay. Looks great.

Ion - FPS Survival Game? The new space DayZ Xbox MMO from Dean "Rocket" Hall. Is this another game he'll pump into Early Access, then abandon to work on something else again? Stay tuned.

Rare Collection: Another pack of old games to play on a new system. I think this has some great titles in it and it'll sell decently. Again, old games = I won't bother.

Rise of The Tomb Raider - Adventure. I hope it'll be as good/better than the first game. Crystal Dynamics did a really good job of rebooting this IP.

Sea of Thieves - Third-Person Action-RPG? Rare's new pirate multiplayer game for Xbox One. Not really sure on how the gameplay works, so I'll abstain from saying anything other than "it looks pretty."

Minecraft Hololens - Creative. This looks bananas. If they can get the functionality even semi-close to how it looks on stage, this will be nuts. Hologram minecraft on my coffee table? Yes please.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition - Third-person Shooter. Boring. They HAD to bring out a couple "dude-bro" titles I guess. "You can play it at 1080p 60 fps now!" Sorry consoles, I have to pull the PCMASTERRACE card here... why wasn't it able to do that before? Not a selling point, in my opinion.

Gears of War 4 - Third-person Shooter. The trailer was SO DARK. Couldn't really see much of anything other than ANOTHER game that just rehashes old game design to pump out another title that they know will sell. Bored.

Divinity: Original Sin - Turn-based RPG. Shown after the showcase, this game will be AWESOME for console players. This is one of the best games I have played in the past year and is loads of fun with a friend.

Bethesda Notes:

Fallout 4 will be a good game. It'll be a game that keeps a lot of game systems that work, and it'll iterate on that successful formula and have a better game.

Doom looks boring. I'm so tired of just shooters for the sake of being shooters.

Dishonored 2 will be ok. It's one of the those games that I'll blow through once, and be done with forever. It'll be probably 20 hrs-ish of enjoyment, then I'll never touch it again.

Elder Scrolls Card Game: Boring. I hate card games on computer.

I'm currently playing Fallout Shelter even though I know it's a builder-esque mobile game... what's wrong with me.

E3 EA Notes:

Need for Speed: Racing. "Heroes of today's car culture." What. Open world is good. Racing and getting chased by cops. IRL cinematics going to in-game graphics that looks real-ish. Graphics look pretty good, frame-rate is not great. I wish the camera would pull back more in racing games, but I feel like they do this because of people with small screens.

Star Wars: The Old Republic - Really? TOR Expansion? Blur cinematics look great, but the MMO still isn't good enough. The story is really good in this game... but MMO's are about social tools and end-game content. TOR just isn't good enough in these regards.

Unravel - "Do more than just entertain." Puzzle-platformer. Looks like a cutesy-artsy kind of game. Might be a one-time playthrough. Physics-based 3D platforming that looks good.

Plants vs Zombies: GW2 - Nobody's clapping for the zombie dancing to Danger Zone on stage. Womp womp EA. "Plants are on the attack." So you just get to defend as zombies now? Ugh. Not enough so far... Seems to be arcade-y fun. First game wasn't bad... just not better than other options that are available. Vid linked up above.

EA Sports - I can't even comment normally on any of these games. Sports games are fun if you're into sports, but it's boring if you're not.

NBA Live 16 - Face scan tech again. Looks pretty close to this guy, so we'll see how accurate it actually is at launch. Lots of customization for your character. Can really place yourself in the game.

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes - Mobile SW game.... UGH.

FIFA 16 - It'll be another soccer game. I feel like these sports games have people that still have a negative stigma about video games... playing video games. Women's teams are in the game now. This guy keeps bragging about Pele being on stage with him... Nobody in America cares.

Mirror's Edge - No clue, they showed a pretty trailer, then went straight to Madden.

Madden - Not even worth watching. Interactive fantasy football. D&D for people that hate nerds.

Star Wars: Battlefront - They catered to people's nostalgia filters with stories of childhood Star Wars memories. Gameplay looks pretty good with lots going on BUT actual gameplay never looks like this in any of the battlefield games. Instead of lots of events being spread out over a battlefield, it's always just one cluster of death that slowly moves back and forth. Maybe some capture points get hit on the side occasionally... but it's never as spread out as the gameplay trailer would have you believe. Is it just me, or does the Hoth battle map look tiny. It looks like someone was told verbally about the Hoth battle but didn't watch the movie.

The Division - 3rd Person Shooter/RPG - The graphic downgrade from the first announcement... holy cow. This looks nothing like what it was supposed to look like. I've heard a lot of bad things about the development of this game... So I don't have high hopes. I wanted it to be good... but it won't be. Sad panda.

Anno 2205 - Real Time Strategy - I loved the previous game. I'm sure this game will be excellent for fans of strategy. These games are all about balancing your economy in-game and it's super fun.

Just Dance 2016 - Dance game - Can play with just a mobile device. Just Dance Streaming... meh. I guess this is another game that gets less stereotypical gamers into games. This video is cringe.

Rainbow Six: Siege - Tactical Shooter - Isn't this game already out on PC? This game is alright... but most people got tired of it after the first week of playing.

Trackmania - Racing/Creative Game - These are fun games, but they're not good enough to compete with the other racing titles. It's arcade-y and fun with friends... but it doesn't keep you hooked for very long.

Assassin's Creed: Syndicate - 3rd Person Action - I'm a sucker for Assassin's Creed. IV was the last good one... but I'll keep playing these for the meta-story.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands - 4 Player Co-op 3rd Person Shooter - Open world. I'll have to see how this game ends up if we can see ACTUAL gameplay. Always have to take E3 presentations with a grain of salt.

E3 Sony Notes #remake:

Last Guardian - 3D Puzzle Platformer - Looks beautiful and everyone was tearing up for the guardian. We'll see how the gameplay pans out.

Horizon: Zero Dawn - 3rd Person Action Shooter - In the future... after humanity has been mostly wiped out by machines and it looks pretty sick. Machine animal things... I dig it.

Hitman - 3rd Person Stealth Action - Hitman is old news for me. I'm not super excited unless they REALLY surprise us and do something new.

Dreams - Creative - By the LittleBigPlanet team... No clue what this is. It almost looks like a creative tool to make beautiful cinematics... not sure how the gameplay will work.

Destiny: The Taken King - Destiny's a good game. More content is always good. Not super exciting though.

About Me

I've been an avid game enthusiast for over a decade. I like to focus on the psychology of game design and I pay careful attention to how games affect players.
I don't have a PhD in interactive media psychology. I'm just the child of a clinical psychologist and I've been in far too much therapy myself.